Astrophysics Science Project Integrating Research and Education

Hess' Balloon Ride: Particle Concentration
Student Questions

Copy questions and answers into your lab notebook. Use your data to answer the questions.


  1. What were your predictions about the relationship between particle counts and altitude changes? Were you right?
  2. What happens to the particle count as altitude changes?
  3. By looking at the data, what can you hypothesize about the source of the particles? Is it coming from Earth, or somewhere else?
  4. What happened to your counts when you took several readings at one altitude?
  5. What was the average amount of time that you had to count particles in order to get a smooth line on your graph?


You may run the experiment again to make more observations.
Otherwise, copy the questions and your answers to your data notebook.

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